The Big Fight: My Life in and Out of the Ring

by Michael Arkush (Author), SugarRayLeonard (Author)

• New

  Paperback
  2012

  $24.27

  In his New York Times bestselling memoir, one of America's greatest boxing legends faces his single greatest competitor: himself

  Champions come and go, but to be legendary you got to have heart, more heart than the next man, more than anyone in the world. Ray's heart was bigger than all the rest. He would never stop fighting. --Muhammad Ali

  In Washington, D.C., during the 1970s, a black man could get into the newspapers in one of two ways: crime--or boxing. Sugar Ray Leonard chose to fight. After winning a gold medal at the 1976 Olympics, Ray wanted to call it quits and go to college, but his family's financial needs made him go pro. Boxing history was made. All the while, another, darker Ray--one overwhelmed by depression, rage, drug addiction, sexual abuse, and greed--battled for dominance. In The Big Fight, Ray comes to terms with both these men and shares a brutally honest and remarkably inspiring portrait of the rise, fall, and ultimate redemption of a true fighter--inside and outside the ring.

• Used

  Paperback
  2012

  $4.59

  Sugar Ray Leonard is quite simply one of the greatest fighters of the last fifty years. An artist and a showman he was always willing to take the difficult fight: his gruelling encounters with Roberto Duran, Thomas Hearns and Marvin Hagler have become legendary. Ruthlessly honest and inspiring, Ray's autobiography lets you get into the ring - with the mind games, brutality and euphoria. But, outside of the ring, Ray's biggest opponent of all was himself. From early domestic violence and experience of sexual abuse, he began a determined rise to Olympic champion and national icon, before losing control of his life at the height of his career in the blur of fame, sex, greed, drink and drug addiction that cost him so much. The Big Fight is a remarkable portrait of the rise, fall and final redemption of a true fighter in every sense.